The London Community Foundation (LCF) is pleased to launch the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Grassroots Fund. This Fund is managed in partnership with the Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP).

The aim of the Fund is to support the resilience of organisations that focus on ending violence against women and girls by providing two-year grants, capacity building, peer support and networking events.

Objectives

• Support VAWG grassroots organisations to sustain their services, especially in light of the Covid-19 outbreak;
• Build the capacity of existing services for women and girls affected by VAWG;
• Sustain effective interventions that are facing challenges in continuing service delivery, including maintain existing services, whilst supporting the stability of grassroots organisations;
• Increase the accessibility of grassroots organisations best placed to respond to the needs of London's diverse communities and women with no recourse to public funds for whom mainstream, generic provision is not always appropriate or safety accessible;
• Fund services that are responsive to communities of protected demographic groups at a grassroots level and can reach survivors across borough boundaries.
• Sustained services for survivors to allow opportunity for recovery, allowing them the time to heal, be empowered, gain independence and address the multiple issues they may face;
• Survivors experience better outcomes as a result of the Fund validating and sharing best practice, e.g. of models, recognised safeguarding and clinical and recovery frameworks;
• Develop networks of experts in services tackling VAWG to build overall sector capacity;
• Support the Voluntary and Community Sector to undertake robust performance monitoring and evaluation methods to demonstrate what difference the funding has made and what works.

Funding Information

• Grant size:
  • For individual organisations, two-year grants between £30,000 (£15,000 per year) and £100,000 (£50,000) are available.
  • Partnerships of up to three organisations can apply for two-year grants of up to £120,000 (£60,000 per year) for the partnership.
• Fund split:
  • A minimum of 60% of funding will be prioritised for grassroots, by and for, BME specialist organisations.
  • A maximum of 40% of funding is for specialist grassroots community organisations who provide services for marginalised and minoritised groups such as disabled women, LBTQ+ women, women with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) and women involved in prostitution.

Eligibility Criteria

The Fund is focused on strengthening and supporting grassroots organisations providing services for survivors of VAWG in London, with an emphasis on provision of services by and for women from BME and marginalised communities. Projects that focus on harmful practices and support for women involved in prostitution are also eligible.

• Applicants must:
  • Currently be providing services to address VAWG
  • Be able to demonstrate a minimum of three complete years of operation
  • Be delivering the work they are requesting funding for in London, with a preference for organisations based in London
• The foundation will accept applications from organisations with the following legal status:
  • Constituted voluntary and community groups that have a minimum of 3 unrelated members responsible for the governance of the organisations; trustees/directors/management committee, as appropriate
  • Registered Charities
  • Community Interest Companies (CIC) Limited by Guarantee
  • Charitable Companies (Limited by Guarantee)
  • Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIO)

For more information, visit VAWG Grassroots Fund.